Definition of Vehicles, Vehicle Types, and Routes
Filename extension .rou.xml
Type of content Vehicles, Vehicle Types, and Routes
Open format? Yes
SUMO specific? Yes
XML Schema routes_file.xsd

There are various applications that can be used to define vehicular demand for SUMO from existing input data. Traffic demand can also be created and edited visually with netedit. All these applications eventually create XML definitions.

Of course it is also possible to define the demand file manually or to edit generated files with a text editor. Before starting, it is important to know that a vehicle in SUMO consists of three parts:

  • a vehicle type which describes the vehicle's physical properties,
  • a route the vehicle shall take,
  • and the vehicle itself.

Both routes and vehicle types can be shared by several vehicles. It is not mandatory to define a vehicle type. If not given, a default type is used. The driver of a vehicle does not have to be modelled explicitly. For the simulation of persons which walk around or ride in vehicles, additional definitions are necessary.

Vehicles and Routes#

Initially, we will define a vehicle with a route that belongs to it:

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" accel="0.8" decel="4.5" sigma="0.5" length="5" maxSpeed="70"/>

    <vehicle id="0" type="type1" depart="0" color="1,0,0">
      <route edges="beg middle end rend"/>
    </vehicle>

</routes>

By giving such a route definition to sumo (or sumo-gui), sumo will build a red (color=1,0,0) vehicle of type "type1" named "0" which starts at time 0. The vehicle will drive along the streets "beg", "middle", "end", and as soon as it has approached the edge "rend" it will be removed from the simulation.

This vehicle has its own internal route which is not shared with other vehicles. It is also possible to define two vehicles using the same route. In this case the route must be "externalized" - defined before being referenced by the vehicles. Also, the route must be named by giving it an id. The vehicles using the route refer it using the "route"-attribute. The complete change looks like this:

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" accel="0.8" decel="4.5" sigma="0.5" length="5" maxSpeed="70"/>

    <route id="route0" color="1,1,0" edges="beg middle end rend"/>

    <vehicle id="0" type="type1" route="route0" depart="0" color="1,0,0"/>
    <vehicle id="1" type="type1" route="route0" depart="0" color="0,1,0"/>

</routes>

Available Vehicle attributes#

A vehicle may be defined using the following attributes:

Attribute Name Value Type Description
id id (string) The name of the vehicle
type id The id of the vehicle type to use for this vehicle.
route id The id of the route the vehicle shall drive along
color color This vehicle's color
depart float (s) or human-readable-time or one of triggered, containerTriggered, begin The time step at which the vehicle shall enter the network; see #depart. Alternatively the vehicle departs once a person enters or a container is loaded
departLane int/string (≥0, "random", "free", "allowed", "best", "first") The lane on which the vehicle shall be inserted; see #departLane. default: "first"
departPos float(m)/string ("random", "free", "random_free", "base", "last", "stop", "splitFront") The position at which the vehicle shall enter the net; see #departPos. default: "base"
departSpeed float(m/s)/string (≥0, "random", "max", "desired", "speedLimit", "last", "avg") The speed with which the vehicle shall enter the network; see #departSpeed. default: 0
departEdge int (index from [0, routeLength[ or "random" The initial edge along the route where the vehicle should enter the network (only supported if a complete route is defined); see #departEdge. default: 0
arrivalLane int/string (≥0,"current") The lane at which the vehicle shall leave the network; see #arrivalLane. default: "current"
arrivalPos float(m)/string (≥0(1), "random", "max") The position at which the vehicle shall leave the network; see #arrivalPos. default: "max"
arrivalSpeed float(m/s)/string (≥0,"current") The speed with which the vehicle shall leave the network; see #arrivalSpeed. default: "current"
arrivalEdge int (index from [0, routeLength[ or "random" The final edge along the route where the vehicle should leave the network (only supported if a complete route is defined); see #arrivalEdge.
line string A string specifying the id of a public transport line which can be used when specifying person rides
personNumber int (in [0,personCapacity]) The number of occupied seats when the vehicle is inserted. default: 0
containerNumber int (in [0,containerCapacity]) The number of occupied container places when the vehicle is inserted. default: 0
reroute bool Whether the vehicle should be equipped with a rerouting device (setting this to false does not take precedence over other assignment options)
via id list List of intermediate edges that shall be passed on rerouting

Note: when via is not set, any <stop>-elements that belong to this route will automatically be used as intermediate edges. Otherwise via takes precedence.
departPosLat float(m)/string ("random", "free", "random_free", "left", "right", "center") The lateral position on the departure lane at which the vehicle shall enter the net; see Simulation/SublaneModel. default: "center"
arrivalPosLat float(m)/string ("default", "left", "right", "center") The lateral position on the arrival lane at which the vehicle shall arrive; see Simulation/SublaneModel. by default the vehicle does not care about lateral arrival position
speedFactor float > 0 Sets custom speedFactor (factor on road speed limit) and overrides the speedFactor distribution of the vehicle type
insertionChecks string list Sets the list of safety checks to perform during vehicle insertion. Possible values are: all, none, collision, leaderGap, followerGap, junction, stop, arrivalSpeed, oncomingTrain, speedLimit, pedestrians. default all

Caution

Any vehicle types or routes referenced by the attributes type or route must be defined before they are used. Loading order is described here.

Repeated vehicles (Flows)#

It is possible to define repeated vehicle emissions ("flows"), which have the same parameters as the vehicle or trip definitions except for the departure time. The id of the created vehicles is "flowId.runningNumber" and they are distributed either equally or randomly in the given interval. The following additional parameters are known:

Attribute Name Value Type Description
begin float (s) or human-readable-time or one of triggered, containerTriggered first vehicle departure time
end float(s) end of departure interval (if undefined, defaults to 24 hours)
vehsPerHour float(#/h) number of vehicles per hour, equally spaced (not together with period or probability)
period float(s) or "exp(X)" where x is float if float is given, insert equally spaced vehicles at that period. If exp(X) is given, insert vehicles with exponentially distributed time gaps. This turns insertion into a Poisson process with an expected value of X insertions per second. (not together with vehsPerHour or probability), see also Simulation/Randomness
probability float([0,1]) probability for emitting a vehicle each second (not together with vehsPerHour or period), see also Simulation/Randomness
number int(#) total number of vehicles, equally spaced

Flow can define their route explicitly (like vehicles) or with from,to,via (like trips):

<flow id="type1" color="1,1,0"  begin="0" end= "7200" period="900" type="BUS">
    <route edges="beg middle end rend"/>
    <stop busStop="station1" duration="30"/>
</flow>

<route id="route1" edges="beg middle end rend"/>
<flow id="type2" color="1,1,0"  begin="0" end= "7200" period="900" type="BUS" route="route1">
    <stop busStop="station1" duration="30"/>
</flow>

<flow id="type3" color="1,1,0"  begin="0" end= "7200" period="900" type="BUS" from="beg" to="end">
    <stop busStop="station1" duration="30"/>
</flow>

Caution

While flow and vehicle definitions can be mixed arbitrarily, the route file always has to be sorted by departure / begin time.

If you want to load unsorted vehicles / flows then load the file as an additional file. This will load the whole file at once and thus increase memory consumption. You can also use tools/route/sort_routes.py to sort the route file.

Routes#

One may notice, that the route itself also got a color definition, so the attributes of a route are:

Attribute Name Value Type Description
id id (string) The name of the route
edges id list The edges the vehicle shall drive along, given as their ids, separated using spaces
color color This route's color
repeat int The number of times that the edges of this route shall be repeated (default 0)
cycleTime time (s) When defining a repeating route with stops and those stops use the until attribute, the times will be shifted forward by 'cycleTime' on each repeat

There are a few important things to consider when building your own routes:

  • Routes have to be connected. At the moment the simulation raises an error if the next edge of the current route is not a successor of the current edge or if the vehicle is not allowed to drive on any of the lanes. If you want the old behavior where a vehicle simply stopped at the end of the current edge and was possibly "teleported" to the next edge after a waiting time, use the Option --ignore-route-errors.
  • Routes have to contain at least one edge.
  • The route file has to be sorted by starting times. In fact this is only relevant, when you define a lot of routes or have large gaps between departure times. The simulation parameter --route-steps, which defaults to 200, defines the size of the time interval with which the simulation loads its routes. That means by default at startup, only routes with departure times <200 are loaded, if all the vehicles have departed, the routes up to departure time 400 are loaded etc. pp. This works only if the route file is sorted. This behavior may be disabled by specifying --route-steps 0. It is possible to load unsorted route files as an additional file which will load the whole file at once.

The first two conditions can be checked using <SUMO_HOME>/tools/route/routecheck.py, the third can be "fixed" using <SUMO_HOME>/tools/route/sort_routes.py.

Caution

sumo may enter an infinite loop when given an unsorted route file with person definitions.

Repeated Routes#

When using attribute 'repeat' to repeat a route. The number of edges will be repeated the given number of times after driving them for the first time. If route is defined as stand-alone route (defined with it's own id outside a vehicle definition), any stops defined within the route will be repeated as well. If the stops use attribute 'until', they will be shifted by attribute 'cycleTime' in each iteration.

Caution

When defining a route as child element of a vehicle, any defined stops will belong to the vehicle rather than the route and will not be repeated.

Caution

When a repeated route contains only a single stop, all repeated instances of the stop will be on the first iteration of the route. This can be avoided by adding a second stop slightly after first with duration="0"

Incomplete Routes (trips and flows)#

Demand information for the simulation may also take the form of origin and destination edges instead of a complete list of edges. In this case the simulation performs fastest-path routing based on the traffic conditions found in the network at the time of departure/flow begin. Optionally, a list of intermediate edges can be specified with the via attribute. The input format is exactly the same as that for the duarouter application and can be found here.

<routes>
  <trip id="t" depart="0" from="beg" to="end"/>
  <flow id="f" begin="0" end="100" number="23" from="beg" to="end"/>
  <flow id="f2" begin="0" end="100" number="23" from="beg" to="end" via="e1 e23 e7"/>
</routes>

For more details on how to handle routing errors and influence the routing in this case see Demand/Automatic_Routing.

For supported attributes for flows and trips see here.

Traffic assignment zones (TAZ)#

It is also possible to let vehicles depart and arrive at traffic assignment zones (TAZ). This allows the departure and arrival edges to be selected from a predefined list of edges. Those edges are used which minimize the travel time from origin TAZ to destination TAZ. When loading trips into duarouter the loaded travel times are used (with empty-network travel times as default). When loading trips into sumo, the current travel times in the network are used as determined by the rerouting device.

<routes>
  <trip id="t" depart="0" fromTaz="taz1" toTaz="taz2"/>
</routes>
<additional>
  <taz id="<TAZ_ID>" edges="<EDGE_ID> <EDGE_ID> ..."/>
  ...
</additional>

Note

When used in duarouter or sumo, edge weights within TAZ are ignored.

When loading <taz> in sumo-gui the optional attribute shape can be used to draw an arbitrary polygon border for visualizing the traffic assignment zone.

Caution

When using TAZ with sumo and duarouter, their edges will be selected to minimize travel time. This is different from TAZ usage in od2trips where edges are selected according to a probability distribution.

Routing between Junctions#

Trips and flows may use the attributes fromJunction, toJunction, and viaJunctions to describe origin, destination and intermediate locations. This is a special form of TAZ-routing and it must be enabled by either setting the SUMO option --junction-taz or by loading TAZ-definitions that use the respective junction IDs. When using option --junction-taz, all edges outgoing from a junction may be used at the origin and all edges incoming to a junction may be used to reach the intermediate and final junctions.

Implicit Origin and Destination from Stops#

If a trip or flow defines at least one stop as child element, the attributes 'from' and 'to' may be omitted. In this case the edge of the first stop will be used as the 'from'-edge and the edge of the last stop will be used as the 'to'-edge.

Note

A good combination with an implicit origin is also setting the attribute departPos="stop" to make the vehicle start at the exact position of the first stop.

A Vehicle's depart and arrival parameter#

Using the depart... and arrival...-attributes, it is possible to control how a vehicle is inserted into the network and how it leaves it.

depart#

Determines the time at which the vehicle enters the network (for <flow> the value of begin is used instead). If there is not enough space in the network, the actual depart time may be later.

  • When using option --max-depart-delay <TIME> the vehicle is discarded if unable to depart after the given delay
  • A random offset to the specified depart time is added for each vehicle when using option --random-depart-offset <TIME>
  • When using the special value triggered, the vehicle will depart as soon as a person enters it.
  • The special value begin will trigger a depart at simulation start. This is especially useful for taxi (or other public transport) fleets.

departLane#

Determines on which lane the vehicle is tried to be inserted;

  • ≥0: the index of the lane, starting with rightmost=0
  • "random": a random lane is chosen; please note that a vehicle insertion is not retried if it could not be inserted
  • "free": the most free (least occupied) lane is chosen
  • "allowed": the "free" lane (see above) of those lane of the depart edge which allow vehicles of the class the vehicle belongs to
  • "best": the "free" lane of those who allow the vehicle the longest ride without the need to lane change
  • "first": the rightmost lane the vehicle may use

departPos#

Determines the position on the chosen departure lane at which the vehicle is tried to be inserted;

  • ≥0: the position on the lane, starting at the lane's begin; must be smaller than the starting lane's length
  • "random": a random position is chosen; it is not retried to insert the vehicle if the first try fails
  • "free": a free position (if existing) is used
  • "random_free": at first, ten random positions are tried, if all fail, "free" is applied
  • "base": the vehicle is tried to be inserted at the position which lets its back be at the beginning of the lane (vehicle's front position=vehicle length)
  • "last": the vehicle is inserted with the given speed as close as possible behind the last vehicle on the lane. If the lane is empty it is inserted at the end of the lane instead. When departSpeed="max" is set, vehicle speed will not be adapted.
  • "stop": if the vehicle has a stop defined, it will depart at the endPos of the stop. If no stop is defined, the behavior defaults to "base"
  • "splitFront": if the vehicle uses attribute depart="split", it will be inserted at the front of the vehicle from which it is split instead of the rear

departSpeed#

Determines the speed of the vehicle at insertion, where maxSpeed = MIN(speedLimit * speedFactor, vType_desiredMaxSpeed * speedFactor, vType_maxSpeed);

  • ≥0: The vehicle is tried to be inserted using the given speed. If that speed is unsafe, departure is delayed.
  • "random": A random speed between 0 and maxSpeed is used, the speed may be adapted to ensure a safe distance to the leader vehicle.
  • "max": The maxSpeed is used, the speed may be adapted to ensure a safe distance to the leader vehicle.
  • "desired": The maxSpeed is used. If that speed is unsafe, departure is delayed.
  • "speedLimit": The speed limit of the lane is used. If that speed is unsafe, departure is delayed.
  • "last": The current speed of the last vehicle on the departure lane is used (or 'desired' speed if the lane is empty). If that speed is unsafe, departure is delayed.
  • "avg": The average speed on the departure lane is used (or the minimum of 'speedLimit' and 'desired' if the lane is empty). If that speed is unsafe, departure is delayed.

departEdge#

Determines the edge along the vehicles route where the vehicle enters the network (By default this is 0: the first edge).

  • integer index ≥0 and <routeLength: The vehicle is inserted at the given index
  • "random": A random index along the route is used.

Note

The attribute departEdge is ignored for <trip>s and for <flow> that do not use attribute route and do not define the child element <route>.

departPosLat#

The lateral position on the departure lane at which the vehicle enters the network. Defaults to 0

  • FLOAT: the offset from the center of the line, a positive value indicates an offset to the right (in right-hand networks).
  • "random": a random position within the lane is chosen; it is not retried to insert the vehicle if the first try fails
  • "free": a free position (if existing) is used
  • "random_free": at first, ten random positions are tried, if all fail, "free" is applied
  • "center": center of the lane (offset 0). This is the default
  • "left": touching the left border of the lane
  • "right": touching the right border of the lane |

arrivalLane#

Determines the lane on which the vehicle should end it's route

  • "current": the vehicle will not change it's lane when nearing arrival. It will use whatever lane is more convenient to reach its arrival position. (default behavior)
  • ≥0: the vehicle changes lanes to end it's route on the specified lane
  • "random": the vehicle will chose a random permitted lane on it's arrival edge and if necessary change it's lane to end there.
  • "first": the vehicle will arrive on the rightmost permitted lane.

arrivalPos#

Determines the position along the destination edge where the vehicle is considered to have arrived;

  • "max": the vehicle will drive up to the end of its final lane. (default behavior)
  • <FLOAT>: the position on the lane, starting at the lane's begin; Negative values count from the end of the lane
  • "random": a random position is chosen at departure; If vehicle is rerouted a new random position is selected.

arrivalSpeed#

Determines the speed at which the vehicle should end its route;

  • "current": the vehicle will not modify it's speed when nearing arrival. It will drive as fast as (safely) possible. (default behavior)
  • ≥0: the vehicle approaches it's arrival position to end with the specified speed

arrivalEdge#

Determines the edge along the vehicles route where the vehicle leaves the network (By default this is final edge).

  • integer index ≥0 and <routeLength: The vehicle is inserted at the given index
  • "random": A random index along the route is used.

Note

The attribute arrivalEdge is ignored for <trip>s and for <flow> that do not use attribute route and do not define the child element <route>.

arrivalPosLat#

The lateral position on the arrival lane at which the vehicle tries to finish its route

  • FLOAT: the offset from the center of the line, a positive value indicates an offset to the right (in right-hand networks).
  • "default": the vehicle may arrive at an arbitrary offset
  • "center": center of the lane (offset 0). This is the default
  • "left": touching the left border of the lane
  • "right": touching the right border of the lane

Vehicle Types#

A vehicle is defined using the vType-element as shown below:

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" accel="2.6" decel="4.5" sigma="0.5" length="5" maxSpeed="70"/>
</routes>

Having defined this, one can build vehicles of type "type1". The values used above are the ones most of the examples use. They resemble a standard vehicle as used within the Stefan Krauß' thesis.

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" accel="2.6" decel="4.5" sigma="0.5" length="5" maxSpeed="70"/>
    <vehicle id="veh1" type="type1" depart="0">
        <route edges="edge1 edge2 edge3"/>
    </vehicle>
</routes>

This definition is the initial one which includes both, the definition of the vehicle's "purely physical" parameters, such as its length, its color, or its maximum velocity, and also the used car-following model's parameters. Please note that even though the car-following parameters are describing values such as max. acceleration, or max. deceleration, they mostly do not correspond to what one would assume. The maximum acceleration for example is not the car's maximum acceleration possibility but rather the maximum acceleration a driver choses - even if you have a Jaguar, you probably are not trying to go to 100km/h in 5s when driving through a city.

The default car following model is based on the work of Krauß but other models can be selected as well. Model selection and parameterization is done by setting further vType-attributes as shown below. The models and their parameters are described in the following.

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" length="5" maxSpeed="70" carFollowModel="Krauss" accel="2.6" decel="4.5" sigma="0.5"/>
</routes>

Available vType Attributes#

Note

Many of the defaults are vClass dependent, so specifying a vClass is often enough.

These values have the following meanings:

Attribute Name Value Type Default Description
id id (string) - The name of the vehicle type
accel float 2.6 The acceleration ability of vehicles of this type (in m/s^2)
decel float 4.5 The deceleration ability of vehicles of this type (in m/s^2)
apparentDecel float ==decel The apparent deceleration of the vehicle as used by the standard model (in m/s^2). The follower uses this value as expected maximal deceleration of the leader.
emergencyDecel float 9.0 The maximal physically possible deceleration for the vehicle (in m/s^2).
startupDelay float >= 0 0 The extra delay time before starting to drive after having had to stop. This is not applied after a scheduled <stop> except for carFollowModel="Rail"
sigma float 0.5 Car-following model parameter, see below
tau float 1.0 Car-following model parameter, see below
length float 5.0 The vehicle's netto-length (length) (in m)
minGap float 2.5 Empty space after leader [m]
maxSpeed float 55.55 (200 km/h) for most vehicles, see vClass-specific defaults The vehicle's (technical) maximum velocity (in m/s)
desiredMaxSpeed float 2778 (1e4 km/h), 5.56 (20km/h) for bikes, 1.39 (5 km/h) for pedestrians, see model details The vehicle desired maximum velocity (in m/s) is computed as desiredMaxSpeed * individual_speedFactor.
speedFactor float or distribution spec 1.0 The vehicles expected multiplier for lane speed limits and desiredMaxSpeed
speedDev float 0.1 The deviation of the speedFactor; see below for details (some vClasses use a different default)
color RGB-color "1,1,0" (yellow) This vehicle type's color
vClass class (enum) "passenger" An abstract vehicle class (see below). By default vehicles represent regular passenger cars.
emissionClass emission class (enum) "PC_G_EU4" An emission class (see below). By default a gasoline passenger car conforming to emission standard EURO 4 is used.
guiShape shape (enum) "unknown" a vehicle shape for drawing. By default a standard passenger car body is drawn.
width float 1.8 The vehicle's width [m] (used only for visualization with the default model, affects sublane model)
height float 1.5 The vehicle's height [m]
mass float 1500 The vehicle's empty mass [kg]
collisionMinGapFactor float depends on carFollowModel (1.0 for most models) The minimum fraction of minGap that must be maintained to the leader vehicle to avoid a collision event
imgFile filename (string) "" Image file for rendering vehicles of this type (should be grayscale to allow functional coloring)
osgFile filename (string) "" Object file for rendering with OpenSceneGraph (any of the file types supported by the available OSG-plugins)
laneChangeModel lane changing model name (string) 'LC2013' The model used for changing lanes
carFollowModel car following model name (string) 'Krauss' The model used for car following
personCapacity int 4 The number of persons (excluding an autonomous driver) the vehicle can transport.
containerCapacity int 0 The number of containers the vehicle can transport.
boardingDuration float 0.5 The time required by a person to board the vehicle.
loadingDuration float 90.0 The time required to load a container onto the vehicle.
latAlignment float, "left", "right", "center", "compact", "nice", "arbitrary" "right" for bicycles, "center" otherwise The preferred lateral alignment when using the sublane-model. <FLOAT> (in m from the center of the lane) or one of ("left", "right", "center", "compact", "nice", "arbitrary").
maxSpeedLat float 1.0 The maximum lateral speed when using the sublane-model or continuous lane change model
actionStepLength float global default (defaults to the simulation step, configurable via --default.action-step-length) The interval length for which vehicle performs its decision logic (acceleration and lane-changing). The given value is processed to the closest (if possible smaller) positive multiple of the simulation step length. See actionStepLength details
scale float >= 0 scaling factor for traffic. Acts as a multiplier for option --scale for all vehicles of this type. Values < 1 cause a proportional reduction in traffic whereas values above 1 increase it by this factor. (default 1)
timeToTeleport float Override option --time-to-teleport for vehicles of this type
timeToTeleportBidi float Override option --time-to-teleport.bidi for vehicles of this type
speedFactorPremature float When set to a positive value, this may cause a train to slow down on approach to a stop whenever the stop has it's arrival attribut set and the vehicle would otherwise be ahead of schedule. The given value is multiplied with the edge speed limit and used as a lower bound for slowing down. If option --use-stop-started is set and the stop defines the started attribute, this is used instead of arrival.

Besides values which describe the vehicle's car-following properties, one can find definitions of the assigned vehicles' shapes, emissions, and assignment to abstract vehicle classes. These concepts will be described in the following. Also, you may find further descriptions of implemented car-following models in the subsection #Car-Following Models.

Speed Distributions#

Individual Speed Factor#

The desired driving speed usually varies among the vehicle of a fleet. In SUMO this is modeled by assigning to each vehicle an individual multiplier which gets applied to the road speed limit. This multiplier is called the individual speedFactor or in short the speedFactor of a vehicle. The product of road speed limit and the individual speed factor gives the desired free flow driving speed of a vehicle. If the individual speedFactor is larger than 1, vehicles can exceed edge speeds. However, vehicle speeds are still capped at the vehicle type's maxSpeed.

While it is possible to assign the individual speedFactor value directly in a <vehicle>, <trip> or even <flow> definition using attribute speedFactor, a more common use case is to define the distribution of these factors for a <vType>.

Having a distribution of speed factors (and hence of desired speeds) is beneficial to the realism of a simulation. If the desired speed is constant among a fleet of vehicles, this implies that gaps between vehicles will keep their size constant over a long time. For this reason, the individual speed factor for each simulated vehicle (whether defined as <vehicle>, <trip> or part of a <flow>) is drawn from a distribution by default.

The speedFactor of a vehicle is also multiplied with the value of maxDesiredSpeed of it's vType. The resulting value gives another upper bound on speed. This achieves speed distribution for road users where the speed limit is not meaningful (i.e. bicyles and pedestrians).

The speedFactor of a vehicle is written to various outputs (tripinfo-output, vehroute-output) and can also be checked via the vehicle parameter dialog.

Defining a normal distribution for vehicle speeds#

Two types of distributions can be defined for sampling the individual speedFactor of each vehicle by giving one of the following attributes in the <vType> element (without space characters between the distribution attributes):

  • normal distribution: speedFactor="norm(mean,deviation)"
  • truncated normal distribution: speedFactor="normc(mean,deviation,lowerCutOff,upperCutOff)"

The default for passenger cars is "normc(1,0.1,0.2,2)" which implies that ~95% of the vehicles drive between 80% and 120% of the legal speed limit.

Instead of giving the multi-parameter definition above, a simpler definition style is also possible.

  • setting the deviation of the distribution directly: speedDev="0.3"
  • setting the mean of the distribution directly: speedFactor="1.2"

When using the attributes in this way, the default cut-off range [0.2, 2] remains unchanged.

Caution

The distribution mean must fall within the cut-off range. In order to use mean values below 0.2 or above 2.0, the 4-parameter version must be used to modify the cut-off parameters as well.

Caution

Attribute speedFactor has three different meanings: in a <vehicle> it defines the individual speedFactor directly. In a <vType> if given as a single floating point value, it defines the mean of the speed distribution and when giving as norm(...) / nomrc(...), it defines the whole distribution.

Vehicle class specific defaults#

When defining a vehicle type with a vClass, the following default speed-deviation will be used.

  • passenger (default vClass): 0.1
  • pedestrian: 0.1
  • bicycle: 0.1
  • truck, trailer, coach, delivery, taxi: 0.05
  • tram, rail_urban, rail, rail_electric, rail_fast: 0
  • emergency: 0
  • everything else: 0.1

Note

before version 1.0.0, the default speedDev values was 0

Global Configuration#

Instead of configuring speed distributions in a <vType> definition (as explained below), the sumo-option --default.speeddev <FLOAT> can be used to set a global default. The option value overrides all vClass-defaults. Setting --default.speeddev 0 estores pre-1.0.0 behavior.

Different distributions for cars and trucks#

The center of the speed distribution is defined relative to the road speed limit. On some roads, different speed limits may apply to cars and trucks. To model this, vClass-specific speed limits may be defined either in the network or directly in an additional file:

Note, that the given type id refers to an edge type rather than a vehicle type. The edge type may be set to an arbitrary value in the network file.

<type id="a" priority="3" numLanes="3" speed="38.89"/>
   <restriction vClass="truck" speed="27.89"/>
</type>

Additional remarks on speed distributions#

Note

When used for pedestrians, the speedFactor attribute is applied directly to the maximum speed of the vType since speed limits are not applicable to pedestrians

Note

If the specified departSpeed of a vehicle exceeds the speed limit and it's vType has a speedFactor deviation > 0, the individual chosen speed multiplier is at least high enough to accommodate the stated depart speed.

Examples#

Define a flow of vehicles that desire to drive at 120% of the speed limit without any deviation:

  <vType id="example" speedFactor="1.2" speedDev="0"/>
  <flow id="f" type="example" begin="0" end="3600" probability="0.2" from="A" to="B"/>

Define a vehicle type with high speed deviation and no cut-off

  <vType id="example2" speedFactor="norm(1.0,0.5)"/>

Vehicle Length#

Due to the work on car following models, we decided to use two values for vehicle length. The length-attribute describes the length of the vehicle itself. Additionally, the minGap-attribute describes the offset to the leading vehicle when standing in a jam.

This is illustrated in the following image:

Length_vs_minGap

Within the simulation, each vehicle needs - when ignoring the safe gap - length+minGap. But only length of the road should be marked as being occupied.

Abstract Vehicle Class#

A SUMO vehicle may be assigned to an "abstract vehicle class", defined by using the attribute vClass. These classes are used in lane definitions and allow/disallow the usage of lanes for certain vehicle types. One may think of having a road with three lanes, where the rightmost may only be used by "taxis" or "buses". The default vehicle class is passenger (denoting normal passenger cars).

Caution

Routing or insertion may fail due to a mismatch between a vehicles vClass and the road permissions. This can be diagnosed in sumo-gui by highlighting edges according to their permissions.

The following vehicle classes exist:

vClass bitmask bit comment
ignoring - (all bits set to 0) may drive on all lanes regardless of set permissions.
private 0
emergency 1
authority 2
army 3
vip 4
pedestrian 5 lanes which only allow this class are considered to be 'sidewalks' in netconvert
passenger 6 This is the default vehicle class and denotes regular passenger traffic
hov 7 High-occupancy vehicle
taxi 8
bus 9 urban line traffic
coach 10 overland transport
delivery 11 Allowed on service roads that are not meant for public traffic
truck 12
trailer 13 truck with trailer
motorcycle 14
moped 15 motorized 2-wheeler which may not drive on motorways
bicycle 16
evehicle 17 future mobility concepts such as electric vehicles which may get special access rights
tram 18
rail_urban 19 heavier than 'tram' but distinct from 'rail'. Encompasses Light Rail and S-Bahn
rail 20 heavy rail
rail_electric 21 heavy rail vehicle that may only drive on electrified tracks
rail_fast 22 High-speed-rail
ship 23 basic class for navigating waterways
custom1 24 reserved for user-defined semantics
custom2 25 reserved for user-defined semantics

These values are a "best guess" of somehow meaningful values, surely worth to be discussed. Though, in parts, they represent classes found in imported formats. They are "abstract" in the means that they are just names only, one could build a .5m long bus.

Note

vClass values are mainly used for determining access restrictions for lanes and edges. Since version 0.21.0 they will also affect the defaults of some other vType parameters. These defaults are documented at Vehicle_Type_Parameter_Defaults.

The following vehicle deprecated classes exist for maintaining backward compatibility:

deprecated vClass replacement
public_emergency deprecated. use 'emergency'
public_authority deprecated, use 'authority'
public_army deprecated, use 'army'
public_transport deprecated, use 'bus'
transport deprecated, use 'truck'
lightrail deprecated, use 'tram'
cityrail deprecated, use 'rail_urban'
rail_slow deprecated, use 'rail'

Vehicle Emission Classes#

The emission class represents a certain emission class. It is defined using the emissionClass attribute. Possible values are given in Models/Emissions and its subsections.

Visualization#

For a nicer visualization of the traffic, the appearance of a vehicle type's vehicles may be changed by assigning them a certain shape using the guiShape attribute. These shapes are used when setting the drawing mode for vehicles to simple shapes. The following shapes are known:

  • "pedestrian"
  • "bicycle"
  • "moped"
  • "motorcycle"
  • "passenger"
  • "passenger/sedan"
  • "passenger/hatchback"
  • "passenger/wagon"
  • "passenger/van"
  • "taxi"
  • "delivery"
  • "truck"
  • "truck/semitrailer" (13.5)
  • "truck/trailer" (6.75)
  • "bus"
  • "bus/coach" (8.25)
  • "bus/flexible" (8.25)
  • "bus/trolley"
  • "rail" (24.5)
  • "rail/railcar" (16.85)
  • "rail/cargo" (13.86)
  • "evehicle"
  • "ant"
  • "ship"
  • "emergency"
  • "firebrigade"
  • "police"
  • "rickshaw"
  • "scooter"
  • "aircraft"

Some of these classes are drawn as a sequence of carriages. The length of a single carriage is indicated in parentheses after the type. For these types, the length of the vehicleType is used as the overall length of the train (all carriages combined). For example, a vehicle with shape rail/cargo and length 70m will have 5 carriages. The number of carriages will always be a whole number and no carriage will be shorter than the length given in brackets but may be longer to meet the length requirements of the whole vehicle. When drawing vehicles with raster images, the image will be repeated for each carriage.

In addition, one can determine the width of the vehicle using the attribute width. When using shapes, one should consider that different vehicle classes (passenger vehicles or buses) have different lengths. Passenger vehicles with more than 10m length look quite odd, buses with 2m length, too.

Caution

Not all of these named shapes have a distinct visualization.

Carriages#

Further parameters can be used to achieve visualization of individual rail carriages and configure exiting behavior at stations.

<vType id="rail" vClass="rail" imgFile="locomotive.png">
    <param key="carriageLength" value="20"/>
    <param key="carriageGap" value="1"/>
    <param key="carriageImages" value="freight.png,passengers.png"/>
    <param key="locomotiveLength" value="25"/>
    <param key="frontSeatPos" value="1.7"/>
    <param key="seatingWidth" value="2.0"/>
    <param key="carriageDoors" value="2"/>
</vType>

Car-Following Models#

The car-following models currently implemented in SUMO are given in the following table.

Element Name (deprecated) Attribute Value (when declaring as attribute) Description
carFollowing-Krauss Krauss The Krauß-model with some modifications which is the default model used in SUMO
carFollowing-KraussOrig1 KraussOrig1 The original Krauß-model
carFollowing-PWagner2009 PWagner2009 A model by Peter Wagner, using Todosiev's action points
carFollowing-BKerner BKerner A model by Boris Kerner

Caution: currently under work
carFollowing-IDM IDM The Intelligent Driver Model by Martin Treiber

Caution: Default parameters result in very conservative lane changing gap acceptance
carFollowing-IDMM IDMM Variant of IDMM

Caution: lacking documentation
carFollowing-EIDM EIDM Extended Intelligent Driver Model for subsecond simulation by Dominik Salles
carFollowing-KraussPS KraussPS the default Krauss model with consideration of road slope
carFollowing-KraussAB KraussAB the default Krauss model with bounded acceleration (only relevant when using PHEM classes)
carFollowing-SmartSK SmartSK Variant of the default Krauss model

Caution: lacking documentation
carFollowing-Wiedemann Wiedemann Car following model by Wiedemann (2-Parameters)
carFollowing-W99 W99 Car following model by Wiedemann, 10-Parameter version
carFollowing-Daniel1 Daniel1 Car following model by Daniel Krajzewicz

Caution: lacking documentation
carFollowing-ACC ACC Car following model by Milanés V. and Shladover S.E.
carFollowing-CACC CACC Car following model by Milanés V. and Shladover S.E.
carFollowing-Rail Rail Model for various train types

Car-Following Model Parameters#

Mostly, each model uses its own set of parameters. The following table lists which parameter are used by which model(s). Details on car-following models and their parameters can be found here.

Attribute Default Range Description Models
minGap vClass-specific >= 0 Minimum Gap when standing (m) all models
accel vClass-specific >= 0 The acceleration ability of vehicles of this type (in m/s^2) all models
decel vClass-specific >= 0 The deceleration ability of vehicles of this type (in m/s^2) all models
emergencyDecel vClass-specific >= decel The maximum deceleration ability of vehicles of this type in case of emergency (in m/s^2) all models except "Daniel1"
startupDelay 0 >=0 The extra delay time before starting to drive after having had to stop. This is not applied after a scheduled <stop> except for carFollowModel="Rail" all models except "Daniel1"
sigma 0.5 [0,1] The driver imperfection (0 denotes perfect driving) Krauss, SKOrig, PW2009
sigmaStep step-length > 0 The frequence for updating the acceleration associated with driver imperfection. If set to a constant value (i.e 1), this decouples the driving imperfection from the simulation step-length Krauss, SKOrig, PW2009
tau 1 >= 0 The driver's desired (minimum) time headway. Exact interpretation varies by model. For the default model Krauss this is based on the net space between leader back and follower front). For limitations, see Car-Following-Models#tau). all models
k Kerner
phi Kerner
delta 4 acceleration exponent IDM, EIDM
stepping 0.25 >= 0 the internal step length (in s) when computing follow speed IDM, EIDM
adaptFactor 1.8 >= 0 the factor for taking into account past level of service IDMM
adaptTime 600 >= 0 the time interval (in s) for relaxing past level of service IDMM
security desire for security Wiedemann
estimation accuracy of situation estimation Wiedemann
speedControlGain -0.4 The control gain determining the rate of speed deviation (Speed control mode) ACC
gapClosingControlGainSpeed 0.8 The control gain determining the rate of speed deviation (Gap closing control mode) ACC
gapClosingControlGainSpace 0.04 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Gap closing control mode) ACC
gapControlGainSpeed 0.07 The control gain determining the rate of speed deviation (Gap control mode) ACC
gapControlGainSpace 0.23 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Gap control mode) ACC
collisionAvoidanceGainSpace 0.8 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Collision avoidance mode) ACC
collisionAvoidanceGainSpeed 0.23 The control gain determining the rate of speed deviation (Collision avoidance mode) ACC
collisionAvoidanceOverride 2 If the ACC followSpeed is higher than the Krauss-followSpeed by the given value X, limit the speed to Krauss-speed + X to avoid collision ACC, CACC
speedControlGainCACC -0.4 The control gain determining the rate of speed deviation (Speed control mode) CACC
gapClosingControlGainGap 0.005 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Gap closing control mode) CACC
gapClosingControlGainGapDot 0.05 The control gain determining the rate of the positioning deviation derivative (Gap closing control mode) CACC
gapControlGainGap 0.45 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Gap control mode) CACC
gapControlGainGapDot 0.0125 The control gain determining the rate of the positioning deviation derivative (Gap control mode) CACC
collisionAvoidanceGainGap 0.45 The control gain determining the rate of positioning deviation (Collision avoidance mode) CACC
collisionAvoidanceGainGapDot 0.05 The control gain determining the rate of the positioning deviation derivative (Collision avoidance mode) CACC
cc1 1.30 Spacing Time - s W99
cc2 8.00 Following Variation - m W99
cc3 -12.00 Threshold for Entering "Following" - s W99
cc4 -0.25 Negative "Following" Threshold - m/s W99
cc5 0.35 Positive "Following" Threshold - m/s W99
cc6 6.00 Speed Dependency of Oscillation - 10^-4 rad/s W99
cc7 0.25 Oscillation Acceleration - m/s^2 W99
cc8 2.00 Standstill Acceleration - m/s^2 W99
cc9 1.50 Acceleration at 80km/h - m/s^2 W99
trainType string id for pre-defined train type Rail
tpreview 4.00 >= 1 The look ahead time headway for the desired speed. Lower values result in late and hard braking when turning at junctions or when speed limits change (s) EIDM
tPersDrive 3.00 >= 1 Correlation time of the Wiener Process for the driving error (originally from Human Driver Model) (s) EIDM
tPersEstimate 10.00 >= 1 Correlation time of the Wiener Process for the estimation errors (originally from Human Driver Model) (s) EIDM
treaction 0.50 >= 0 The interval length for which CF-model performs its decision logic (acceleration only). Works similar to the actionStepLength attribute, but here it can be seen as a maximal value. The driver will react faster in critical situations. ActionStepLength/Driverstate should not be used together with this model Reference (s) EIDM
ccoolness 0.99 [0,1] Coolness Parameter, the driver takes the acceleration of the leading vehicle into account. How cool the driver reacts to lane changes, which reduce the gap to the next leading vehicle. 0 means that this term is not used at all. (originally from Enhanced Intelligent Driver Model (-) EIDM
sigmaleader 0.02 [0,1] Estimation error magnitude of the leading vehicle's speed (originally from Human Driver Model) (-) EIDM
sigmagap 0.10 [0,1] Estimation error magnitude of the gap between the vehicle and the leading vehicle (originally from Human Driver Model) (-) EIDM
sigmaerror 0.10 [0,1] Driving error magnitude (originally from Human Driver Model) (-) EIDM
jerkmax 3.00 >= 1 The maximal change in acceleration between simulation steps (m/s^3) EIDM
epsilonacc 1.00 >= 0 Maximal acceleration difference between simulation steps. The driver reacts immediately when the computed threshold is reached (originally from Reference) (m/s^2) EIDM
taccmax 1.20 >= 0 Time it approx. takes the driver to reach the maximal acceleration after drive-off (s) EIDM
Mflatness 2.00 >= 1 & <= 5.0 Value to flatten the drive-off acceleration curve (-) EIDM
Mbegin 0.70 >= 0 & <= 1.5 Value to shift the drive-off acceleration curve along the x-axis (-) EIDM
maxvehpreview 0 >= 0 - not yet integrated - Number of vehicles the driver can see for spatial anticipation (originally from Human Driver Model) (-) EIDM
vehdynamics 0 0 or 1 - not yet integrated - Bool variable to add vehicle resistance terms to the CF-model's acceleration calculation (turn on=1/off=0) (-) EIDM

To select a car following model the following syntax should be used:

<vType id="idmAlternative" length="5" minGap="2" carFollowModel="IDM" tau="1.0" .../>

Default Krauss Model Description#

The default model is a modification of the model defined by Stefan Krauß in Microscopic Modeling of Traffic Flow: Investigation of Collision Free Vehicle Dynamics. The implemented model follows the same idea as that of Krauß, namely: Let vehicles drive as fast as possibly while maintaining perfect safety (always being able to avoid a collision if the leader starts braking within leader and follower maximum acceleration bounds). The implemented model as in <SUMO_HOME>/src/microsim/cfmodels/MSCFModel_Krauss.cpp has the following differences:

  • Different deceleration capabilities among the vehicles are handled without violating safety (the original model allowed for collisions in this case)
  • The formula for safe velocity was adapted to maintain safety when using the Ballistic-position update rule. This was done by discretizing some of the continuous terms. The original model was defined for the Euler-position updated rule and would produce collisions when using Ballistic. See also Simulation/Basic_Definition#Defining_the_Integration_Method.

Transient carFollowModel Parameters#

carFollowModel parameters that are expected to change during the simulation are modelled via generic parameters. The following parameters are supported (via xml input and traci.vehicle.setParameter):

  • carFollowModel.ignoreIDs : ignore foe vehicles with the given ids
  • carFollowModel.ignoreTypes : ignore foe vehicles that have any of the given types

If multiple ignore parameters are set, they are combined with "or". Foes are ignored while they are being followed. Example:

<vehicle id="ego" depart="0" route="r0">
   <param key="carFollowModel.ignoreIDs" value="foe1 foe2"/>
   <param key="carFollowModel.ignoreTypes" value="bikeType"/>
</vehicle>

Note

These parameters take no effect in meso

See also transient junctionModel parameters.

Lane-Changing Models#

The lane-changing models currently implemented in SUMO are given in the following table.

Attribute Value Description
LC2013 The default car following model, developed by Jakob Erdmann based on DK2008 (see SUMO’s Lane-Changing Model). This is the default model.
SL2015 Lane-changing model for sublane-simulation (used by default when setting option --lateral-resolution <FLOAT>). This model can only be used with the sublane-extension.

Caution: This model may technically be used without activating sublane-simulation but this usage has not been fully tested and may not work as expected.
DK2008 The original lane-changing model of sumo until version 0.18.0, developed by Daniel Krajzewicz (see Traffic Simulation with SUMO – Simulation of Urban Mobility).

Mostly, each model uses its own set of parameters. The following table lists which parameter are used by which model(s).

Attribute Description Models
lcStrategic The eagerness for performing strategic lane changing. Higher values result in earlier lane-changing. default: 1.0, range [0-inf), -1 A value of 0 sets the lookahead-distance to 0 (vehicles can still change at the end of their lane) whereas -1 disables strategic changing completely. LC2013, SL2015
lcCooperative The willingness for performing cooperative lane changing. Lower values result in reduced cooperation. default: 1.0, range [0-1] , -1 A value of 0 would still permit changing if the target lane affords higher speed whereas -1 disables cooperative changing completely LC2013, SL2015
lcSpeedGain The eagerness for performing lane changing to gain speed. Higher values result in more lane-changing. default: 1.0, range [0-inf) A value of 0 disables lane changing for speed gain LC2013, SL2015
lcKeepRight The eagerness for following the obligation to keep right. Higher values result in earlier lane-changing. default: 1.0, range [0-inf) A value of 0 disables this type of changing. LC2013, SL2015
lcOvertakeRight The probability for violating rules against overtaking on the right default: 0, range [0-1] LC2013, SL2015
lcOpposite The eagerness for overtaking through the opposite-direction lane. Higher values result in more lane-changing. default: 1.0, range [0-inf) LC2013
lcLookaheadLeft Factor for configuring the strategic lookahead distance when a change to the left is necessary (relative to right lookahead). default: 2.0, range [0-inf) LC2013, SL2015
lcSpeedGainRight Factor for configuring the threshold asymmetry when changing to the left or to the right for speed gain. By default the decision for changing to the right takes more deliberation. Symmetry is achieved when set to 1.0. default: 0.1, range [0-inf) LC2013, SL2015
lcSpeedGainLookahead Lookahead time in seconds for anticipating slow down. default: 0 (LC2013), 5 (SL2015), range [0-inf) LC2013, SL2015
lcOvertakeDeltaSpeedFactor Speed difference factor for the eagerness of overtaking a neighbor vehicle before changing lanes. If the actual speed difference between ego and neighbor is higher than factor*speedlimit, this vehicle will try to overtake the leading vehicle on the neighboring lane before performing the lane change. default: 0 range [-1-1] LC2013, SL2015
lcKeepRightAcceptanceTime Time threshold for changing the willingness to change right. The value is compared against the anticipated time of unobstructed driving on the right. Lower values will encourage keepRight changes. If the value is changed from it's default, fast approaching follower vehicles will also impact willingness to move to the right lane. default: -1 (legacy behavior where acceptance time ~ 7 * currentSpeed) range [0-inf) LC2013, SL2015
lcCooperativeRoundabout Factor that increases willingness to move to the inside lane in a multi-lane roundabout. default: lcCooperative, range [0-1] LC2013, SL2015
lcCooperativeSpeed Factor for cooperative speed adjustments. default: lcCooperative, range [0-1] LC2013, SL2015
minGapLat The desired minimum lateral gap when using the sublane-model , default: 0.6 SL2015
lcSublane The eagerness for using the configured lateral alignment within the lane. Higher values result in increased willingness to sacrifice speed for alignment. default: 1.0, range [0-inf) SL2015
lcPushy Willingness to encroach laterally on other drivers. default: 0, range [0-1] SL2015
lcPushyGap Minimum lateral gap when encroaching laterally on other drives (alternative way to define lcPushy). default: minGapLat, range 0 to minGapLat SL2015
lcAssertive Willingness to accept lower front and rear gaps on the target lane. The required gap is divided by this value. default: 1, range: positive reals LC2013,SL2015
lcImpatience Dynamic factor for modifying lcAssertive and lcPushy. default: 0 (no effect) range -1 to 1. Impatience acts as a multiplier. At -1 the multiplier is 0.5 and at 1 the multiplier is 1.5. SL2015
lcTimeToImpatience Time to reach maximum impatience (of 1). Impatience grows whenever a lane-change manoeuvre is blocked.. default: infinity (disables impatience growth) SL2015
lcAccelLat maximum lateral acceleration per second. default: 1.0 SL2015
lcTurnAlignmentDistance Distance to an upcoming turn on the vehicles route, below which the alignment should be dynamically adapted to match the turn direction. default: 0.0 (i.e., disabled) SL2015
lcMaxSpeedLatStanding Constant term for lateral speed when standing. default: maxSpeedLat (i.e., disabled) LC2013, SL2015
lcMaxSpeedLatFactor Bound on lateral speed while moving computed as lcMaxSpeedLatStanding + lcMaxSpeedLatFactor * getSpeed(). If > 0, this is an upper bound (vehicles change slower at low speed, if < 0 this is a lower bound on speed and should be combined with lcMaxSpeedLatStanding > maxSpeedLat (vehicles change faster at low speed). default: 1.0 LC2013, SL2015
lcMaxDistLatStanding The maximum lateral maneuver distance in m while standing (currently used to prevent "sliding" keepRight changes). default: 1.6 and 0 for two-wheelers LC2013, SL2015
lcLaneDiscipline Reluctance to perform speedGain-changes that would place the vehicle across a lane boundary. default: 0.0 SL2015
lcSigma Lateral positioning-imperfection. default: 0.0 LC2013, SL2015

The parameters are set within the <vType>:

<vType id="myType" lcStrategic="0.5" lcCooperative="0.0"/>

Note

parameter 'lcMaxSpeedLatStanding' will not be applied when a vehicle is at the end of its lane (to ensure that there are no deadlocks).

Caution

Modifying and Retrieving lane change model attributes via TraCI works different from other vType attributes

Junction Model Parameters#

The behavior at intersections may be configured with the parameters listed below.

Attribute Value Type Default Description
jmCrossingGap float >= 0 (m) 10 Minimum distance to pedestrians that are walking towards the conflict point with the ego vehicle. If the pedestrians are further away the vehicle may drive across the pedestrian crossing (excluding walking area). So, the lower the value, the braver (more aggressive) the driver.
jmIgnoreKeepClearTime float (s) -1 The accumulated waiting time (see Option --waiting-time-memory) after which a vehicle will drive onto an intersection even though this might cause jamming. For negative values, the vehicle will always try to keep the junction clear.
jmDriveAfterRedTime float (s) -1 This value causes vehicles to violate a red light if the light has changed to red more recently than the given threshold. When set to 0, vehicles will always drive at yellow but will try to brake at red. If this behavior causes a vehicle to drive so fast that stopping is not possible any more it will not attempt to stop. This value also applies to the default pedestrian model.
jmDriveAfterYellowTime float (s) -1 This value causes vehicles to violate a yellow light if the light has changed more recently than the given threshold. Vehicles that are too fast to brake always drive at yellow.
jmDriveRedSpeed float (m/s) maxSpeed This value causes vehicles affected by jmDriveAfterRedTime to slow down when violating a red light. The given speed will not be exceeded when entering the intersection.
jmIgnoreFoeProb float 0 This value causes vehicles and pedestrians to ignore foe vehicles that have right-of-way with the given probability. The check is performed anew every simulation step. (range [0,1]). This value also applies to the default pedestrian model.
jmIgnoreFoeSpeed float (m/s) 0 This value is used in conjunction with jmIgnoreFoeProb. Only vehicles with a speed below or equal to the given value may be ignored. This value also applies to the default pedestrian model.
jmIgnoreJunctionFoeProb float 0 This value causes vehicles to ignore foe vehicles and pedestrians that have already entered a junction with the given probability. The check is performed anew every simulation step. (range [0,1]).
jmSigmaMinor float, scaling factor (like sigma) sigma This value configures driving imperfection (dawdling) while passing a minor link (ahead of the intersection after having committed to drive and while still on the intersection).
jmStoplineGap float >= 0 (m) 1 This value configures stopping distance in front of prioritary / TL-controlled stop line. In case the stop line has been relocated by a stopOffset item, the maximum of both distances is applied.
jmTimegapMinor float s 1 This value defines the minimum time gap when passing ahead of a prioritized vehicle.
impatience float or 'off' 0.0 Willingness of drivers to impede vehicles with higher priority. See below for semantics.

The parameters are set within the <vType>:

<vType id="ambulance" jmDriveAfterRedTime="300" jmDriveRedSpeed="5.56"/>

Impatience#

The impatience of a driver is value between 0 and 1 that grows whenever the driver has to stop unintentionally (i.e. due to a jam or waiting at an intersection). The impatience value is computed as

MAX(0, MIN(1.0, baseImpatience + waitingTime / timeToMaxImpatience))

Where baseImpatience is configured by setting the vType-attribute impatience and timeToMaxImpatience is set using the option --time-to-impatience (default 180s). Setting this option to 0 disables impatience growth. The value of baseImpatience may be negative to slow the growth of the dynamically computed impatience. It may also be defined with the value off to prevent drivers from becoming impatient.

The impatience value is used to represent a drivers willingness to impede vehicles with higher priority. At a value of 1 or above, the driver will use any gap that is safe in the sense of collision-avoidance even if it means that another vehicle has to brake as hard as it can. At a value of 0, the driver will only perform maneuvers that do not force other vehicles to slow down. Intermediate values interpolate smoothly between these extremes.

Transient Parameters#

Junction model parameters that are expected to change during the simulation are modelled via generic parameters. The following parameters are supported (via xml input and traci.vehicle.setParameter):

  • junctionModel.ignoreIDs : ignore foe vehicles with the given ids
  • junctionModel.ignoreTypes : ignore foe vehicles that have any of the given types

If multiple ignore parameters are set, they are combined with "or". Foes are ignored while they are approaching a junction and also while they are on the junction.

Example:

<vehicle id="ego" depart="0" route="r0">
   <param key="junctionModel.ignoreIDs" value="foe1 foe2"/>
   <param key="junctionModel.ignoreTypes" value="bikeType"/>
</vehicle>

Note

These parameters also apply to intermodal simulation. They may be used to let pedestrians ignore vehicles and vice versa.

Default Vehicle Type#

If the type attribute of a vehicle is not defined it defaults to "DEFAULT_VEHTYPE". By defining a vehicle type with this id (<vType id="DEFAULT_VEHTYPE" ..../>) the default parameters for vehicles without an explicitly defined type can be changed. The change of the default vehicle type needs to occur before any reference to the type was made, so basically before any vehicle or vehicle type was defined. So it should always be at the top of the very first route file.

Route and vehicle type distributions#

Instead of defining routes and vTypes explicitly for a vehicle sumo can choose them at runtime from a given distribution. In order to use this feature just define distributions as following:

Vehicle Type Distributions#

<routes>
    <vTypeDistribution id="typedist1">
        <vType id="type1" accel="0.8" length="5" maxSpeed="70" probability="0.9"/>
        <vType id="type2" accel="1.8" length="15" maxSpeed="50" probability="0.1"/>
    </vTypeDistribution>
</routes>

Note

The python tool createVehTypeDistributions.py can be used to generate large distributions that vary multiple vType parameters independently of each other.

Using existing types#

Multiple distributions can make use of the same types and optionally override their probabilites

<routes>
    <vType id="type1" accel="0.8" length="5" maxSpeed="70" probability="0.9"/>
    <vType id="type2" accel="1.8" length="15" maxSpeed="50" probability="0.1"/>
    <vTypeDistribution id="typedist1" vTypes="type1 type2"/>
    <vTypeDistribution id="typedist2" vTypes="type1 type2" probabilities="0.5 0.5"/>
</routes>

Route Distributions#

<routes>
    <routeDistribution id="routedist1">
        <route id="route0" color="1,1,0" edges="beg middle end rend" probability="0.9"/>
        <route id="route1" color="1,2,0" edges="beg middle end" probability="0.1"/>
    </routeDistribution>

    <route id="route2" edges="beg middle end rend"/>
    <route id="route3" edges="beg middle end"/>
    <routeDistribution id="routedist2">
        <route refId="route2" probability="2"/>
        <route refId="route3" probability="3"/>
    </routeDistribution>
</routes>

A distribution has only an id as (mandatory) attribute and needs a probability attribute for each of its child elements. The sum of the probability values needs not to be 1, they are scaled accordingly. Note, that probability defaults to 1.00 when not specified. At the moment the id for the children is mandatory, this is likely to change in future versions.

A distribution can be used just as using individual types and routes:

<routes>
    <vehicle id="0" type="typedist1" route="routedist1" depart="0" color="1,0,0"/>
</routes>

Caution

When using duarouter with input files containing distributions, the output files will contain a fixed route and type for each vehicle and the distributions will be gone. This is to ensure that the each vehicles route will fit its sampled vClass when using the input files with sumo

Stops and waypoints#

Vehicles may be forced to stop for a defined time span or wait for persons by using the stop element either as part of a route or a vehicle definition. The stop element can also be used to guide vehicles along a route to a waypoint. The examples below show all three cases:

<routes>
    <route id="route0" edges="beg middle end rend">
        <stop lane="middle_0" endPos="50" duration="20"/>
    </route>
    <vehicle id="v0" route="route0" depart="0">
        <stop lane="end_0" endPos="10" until="50"/>
    </vehicle>
    <vehicle id="v1" route="route0" depart="90">
        <stop lane="end_1" endPos="10" speed="13.89"/>
    </vehicle>
</routes>

The resulting vehicle v0 will stop twice, once at lane middle_0 because of the stop defined in its route and the second time because of the stop defined in the vehicle itself. The first stop will last 20 seconds the second one until simulation second 50. For a detailed list of attributes to stops see below. For a description on how to use them to simulate public transport see Simulation/Public Transport. The second vehicle v1 will stop once at lane middle_0 as defined in the route, then head to lane end_1 and pass that point at 13.89 m/s before terminating at route at rend edge.

Stops can be childs of vehicles, routes, persons or containers.

Attribute Type Range Default Remark
busStop string valid busStop ids - if given, containerStop, chargingStation, edge, lane, startPos and endPos are not allowed
containerStop string valid containerStop ids - if given, busStop, chargingStation, edge, lane, startPos and endPos are not allowed
chargingStation string valid chargingStation ids - if given, busStop, containerStop, edge, lane, startPos and endPos are not allowed
parkingArea string valid parkingArea ids - for more info see parkingArea
lane string lane id - the lane id takes the form <edge_id>_<lane_index>. the edge has to be part of the corresponding route. If the edge supports opposite direction driving, the lane index may use values beyond the lane indices of the stop edge to define stops on the opposite side.
edge string edge id - the vehicle with stop on the rightmost lane that allows its vClass
endPos float(m) -lane.length < x < lane.length (negative values count backwards from the end of the lane) lane.length
startPos float(m) -lane.length < x < lane.length (negative values count backwards from the end of the lane) endPos-0.2m there must be a difference of more than 0.1m between startPos and endPos
friendlyPos bool true,false false whether invalid stop positions should be corrected automatically
duration float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - minimum duration for stopping
until float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - the time step at which the route continues
arrival float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - the expected time of arrival for the stop. If this value is set, stop-output will include the attribute ''arrivalDelay''. If the vehicles's vType defines attribute speedFactorPremature, a vehicle may slow down to prevent premature arrival.
ended float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - the time step at which the stop ended (i.e. as recorded by a prior simulation). Can be used to overrule 'until' by setting option --use-stop-ended (i.e. when trying to reproduce known timings)
started float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - the known time of arrival for the stop (i.e. as recorded by a prior simulation). Can be used to overrule 'arrival' by setting option --use-stop-started (i.e. when trying to reproduce known timings)
extension float(s) or HH:MM:SS ≥0 - the maximum time by which to extend the stop duration due to boarding persons and when waiting for expected persons / triggered stopping
index int, "end", "fit" 0≤index≤number of stops in the route "end" where to insert the stop in the vehicle's list of stops
triggered string list "person", "container", "join", "true", "false" "false" List of necessary conditions for ending a stop (see below)
expected string list of person IDs list of persons that must board the vehicle before it may continue (only takes effect for triggered stops)
expectedContainers string list of container IDs list of containers that must be loaded onto the vehicle before it may continue (only takes effect for triggered stops)
permitted string list of person and container IDs list of transportables that are permitted to enter the vehicle at this stop
parking bool true,false value of triggered whether the vehicle stops on the road or beside
actType string arbitrary activity description in GUI and output files
tripId string arbitrary parameter to be applied to the vehicle to track the trip id within a cyclical public transport route
line string arbitrary new line attribute to be set on the vehicle when reaching this stop (for cyclical public transport route)
speed float positive - speed to be kept while driving between startPos and endPos. This turns the stop into a waypoint.
posLat float - lateral offset while stopped
onDemand bool false whether stopping may be skipped if no person wants to embark or disembark there
jump float(s) or HH:MM:SS -1 when set to a non-negative value, jump to the next mandatory route edge (next stop or arrival edge) and spend the given time for the jump
split string vehicle id must be set to the id of a vehicle with depart="split". Splits the train upon reaching the stop.
join string vehicle id must be set to the id of a vehicle that stops with triggered="join". Joins this train to another upn reaching the stop
  • If "duration" and "until" are given, the vehicle will stop for at least "duration" seconds.
  • If "duration" is 0 the vehicle will decelerate to reach velocity 0 and then start to accelerate again.
  • If "until" is given and "duration" is not and the vehicle arrives at the stop at or after the time step defined by "until" it will decelerate to speed 0 and then accelerate again.
  • If persons board the vehicle, the stop is extended by the "boardingDuration" of the vehicle or until the "personCapacity" is reached. (or "loadingDuration" and "containerCapacity" for containers).
  • If until is defined in the context of a repeated vehicle insertion (flow) it will be incremented by the difference of vehicle creation time and "begin" of the flow.
  • If neither "duration" nor "until" are given, "triggered" defaults to true. If "triggered" is set to false explicitly the vehicle will stop forever.
  • if "duration" or "until" are given along with "triggered", then the vehicle will stop until the given duration/until is reached and a person has boarded
  • If "parking" is set to true. The vehicle stops besides the road without blocking other vehicles.

Caution

If triggered is true then parking will also be set to true by default. If you then set parking to false you may create deadlocks which prevent the simulation from terminating

Note

Bus stops must have a length of at least 10

startPos and endPos#

  • by default vehicles will try to stop at the given endPos
  • if the vehicle comes to a halt earlier (i.e. due to a jam) then the stop counts as reached if the vehicle front is between startPos and endPos
  • if the vehicle picks up a person or container, it can do so as long as the person is between startPos and endPos
  • if the stop uses attribute 'speed', than that speed will be maintained between startPos and endPos

triggered stops#

Typically, a planned stop ends based on a time related condition (a scheduled departure time give as until or a minimum stopping duration or both). However, it is also possible to set other requirements that must be met for the stop to end and these are defined with attribute triggered. The attribute defines a list of conditions and each keyword is explained in the following:

  • "person": the vehicle stops until at least one person has entered
    • the list of necessary and eligible persons can be further customized with attributes expected and permitted
  • "container": the vehicle stops until at least one container has been loaded
    • the list of necessary and eligible containers can be further customized with attributes expectedContainers and permitted
  • "join": the vehicle stops until having joined with another vehicle
  • "true": alias for "person"
  • "false": alias for not defining any trigger conditions

Waypoints#

By defining attribute 'speed' with a positive value, the stop definition is turned into a waypoint. The vehicle will drive past the given lane and keep the defined speed while between startPos end endPos.

Special handling of other attributes:

  • the 'duration' value is ignored
  • the 'triggered' value is not compatible with waypoints and will trigger an errr
  • when the 'until' value is set, vehicles may stop when reaching a waypoint too early

Jumps#

When defining attribute 'jump' with a non-negative value, the vehicle will leave the network for the given duration immediately after finishing the stop and re-enter it on the start of the next edge of it's route. Having a disconnected route after a jump-stop is permitted. When giving jumps as router input, disconnected routes are created by design.

A typical use case for jumps would be a public transport vehicle that has some of it's stops outside the simulated area and is expected to re-enter it at a later time after leaving the simulation (while preserving it's ID and delay).

Caution

The next stop must be on a different edge that that on which the jump started or the next stop will be skipped.

User defined Parameters#

Stops support Generic Parameters. These may also be retrieved and modified via TraCI

<trip id="r0" depart="0"/>
  <stop edge="E0" duration="10">
      <param key="userDefined" value="42"/>
  </stop>
</trip>

Colors#

A color is defined as red,green,blue or red,green,blue,alpha either in a vehicle, route or vType.

<route id="r0" color="0,255,255"/>
<type id="t0" color="0,0,255"/>
<vehicle id="v0" color="255,0,0,0"/>

In the default visualization settings the vehicle color will be used if define, otherwise the type and finally the route color. These settings can be changed.

By default color components should be given as integers in the range of (0,255) but other definitions are also supported:

color="0.5, 0.5, 1.0"
color="#FF0000"
color="red"

The transparency value (alpha) only takes effect when also using the vType attribute imgFile.

Devices#

Vehicle devices are used to model and configure different aspects such as output (device.fcd) or behavior (device.rerouting).

The following device names are supported and can be used for the placeholder <DEVICENAME> below

Automatic assignment#

Some devices are assigned automatically. Every <trip> that is loaded into the simulation is automatically equipped with a rerouting device to perform the initial route computation.

Other devices such as fcd are assigned automatically when the option --fcd-output is set.

Assignment by global options#

Devices can be configured globally for all vehicles in the simulation by setting the option --device.<DEVICENAME>.probability (e.g. --device.fcd.probability 0.25. This will equip about a quarter of the vehicles with an fcd device (each vehicle determines this randomly with 25% probability).) To make the assignment exact the additional option --device.<DEVICENAME>.deterministic can be set. Another option is to pass the list of vehicle ids that shall be equipped using the option --device.<DEVICENAME>.explicit <ID1,ID2,...IDk>.

Note

These options take precedence over automatic assignment by output-option.

Assignment by generic parameters#

Another option for assigning devices for vehicle types or individual vehicles is by using generic parameters. This is done by defining them for the vehicle or the vehicle type in the following way:

<routes>
    <vehicle id="v0" route="route0" depart="0">
        <param key="has.<DEVICENAME>.device" value="true"/>
    </vehicle>

    <vType id="t1">
        <param key="has.<DEVICENAME>.device" value="true"/>
    </vType>

    <vehicle id="v1" route="route0" depart="0" type="t1"/>

    <vType id="t2">
        <param key="device.<DEVICENAME>.probability" value="0.5"/>
    </vType>

    <vehicle id="v2" route="route0" depart="0" type="t2"/>
</routes>

Note

The <param> of a vehicle has precedence over the <param> of the vehicle's type. Both have precedence over the assignment by options.